Gawker
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lawsuits
Facebook Disappears Legal Problem
Facebook settled a long-running trademark suit from Aaron Greenspan (pictured), the Harvard student whose "Universal Face Book" system predated Facebook and was used heavily by its founder before he publicly branded his own social network. Greenspan is just the latest mess Facebook has tidied up. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Tattertotter: Cute. Nice hair. Big hands. I am so unapologetically shallow. 12 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
If You Steal His Books, Stephen King Will Mock You
Writers are getting mad as hell about digital versions of their books getting pirated online. Ursula K. Le Guin and Harlan Ellison will sue you. But we like horror mogul Stephen King's approach: insults! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by bayktdin: My brother let me read his copy of Cujo when I was in Jr. High, was that piracy? 8 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
Wacky Discovery Founder Sues Amazon.com over Kindle
Discovery Communications, the owner of cable channels like FitTV and Animal Planet, is suing Amazon.com, maker of the Kindle, over an electronic-books patent taken out by its founder and CEO, John Hendricks, years ago. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by braak: Don't you actually have to have a blueprint of something before you can patent it? Like, I can't just... 3 Responses | Other threads
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scandal
Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
Even though Google killed Dodgeball, Dennis Crowley reassured the socially inept that they'd still be able to find their friends at bars with his newly launched Foursquare. One problem: it may not be his. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by TedSez: Four square itself is a game that involves strategy as much as physical agility, and I killed at it when... 4 Responses | Other threads
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wtf
TMZ Fights for Its Right to Give Away Octo-Mom Pics
So, how did those photos of Nadya Suleman's horribly distended, octuplet-carrying belly get out into the world? They were licensed to TMZ (presumably by Octo-mom herself), which wants to drum up publicity and traffic. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by IamnotStarJones: how does someone with an aggravated back injury decide to carry that kind of load? [www.sfgate.com] 8 Responses | Other threads
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explainer
Why Disney's funding Chinese pirates
If Chinese viewers want to watch Disney's Hannah Montana — no accounting for global tastes — they can do so on 56.com, an online-video site akin to YouTube. The show is pirated. But does Disney really mind? Its startup-investment arm, Steamboat Ventures, put money into 56.com two years ago. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by mind_at_large: funny thing is if you link to those videos sitting here in US, Disney will come sue you for copyright... more » | Other threads
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ashwin navin
Guy who screwed up BitTorrent leaves BitTorrent
BitTorrent cofounder and president Ashwin Navin is leaving the company. He has plans for a startup incubator in San Francisco's Mission District. Good! That means he'll be screwing up far less consequential companies from here on out. Navin deserves credit for persuading Bram Cohen, the creator of the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, for building a company around it. But that's about it. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Tiki Tonga: Well hell, let's place blame were it belongs - the freakin' idiots who kept investing millions in a company commandeered... 1 Responses | Other threads
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online advertising
Viacom turns MySpace bootlegs into an advertunity
A year ago, Viacom sued YouTube for one billion dollars, claiming YouTube was not blocking uploads of copyrighted Viacom material from Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1 and others. Today, MySpace will join YouTube in running ads targeted to Viacom-owned clips, instead of deleting them. Auditude, a Palo Alto startup, provides the software that identifies Viacom-owned content. Remember when musicians believed all advertising was evil? Now, I'm looking forward to seeing a Big & Rich ad targeted against another Big & Rich ad, overlaid by another Big & Rich ad for a Big & Rich ad I haven't seen yet. Collect them all!
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By Paul BoutinComment by Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper: Thanks! I tried to write you back on MySpace, but my network is running so slow because of all... more » | Other threads
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justin ouellette
Muxtape creator explains how to be an overnight failure
Justin Ouellette's music trading site Muxtape, shut down after failed talks with the RIAA, the music labels' copyright cops, may not have earned him a fortune. But it has secured him a modicum of infamy. He got invited to speak earlier this week at the WebbyConnect Summit in Laguna Niguel, explaining to others on how to replicate his overnight success with making a website deeply popular with Brooklyn's most outspoken Internet users. As Ouellette elaborates in this interview, the key is to just make up something that people want. Guess what? Just because people want free music doesn't mean you can give it to them. Ouellette never figured that part out.
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Comment by Ted Dziuba: You know what else everybody wants? Money. I have a startup idea: we print money. Anyone want... 2 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
YouTube tells McCain where to put DMCA
YouTube has told the McCain campaign they will not reconsider the site's standard ten-day ban on clips that draw DMCA complaints from copyright holders. D.C. insider Declan McCullagh has a copy of YouTube's reply to Monday's letter from a McCain lawyer. Recently, both Fox and CBS got YouTube to yank McCain campaign videos that remixed TV news clips. Question for Daily Kos: Why is Fox News clubbing a Republican presidential candidate? For everyone else, here's the 100-word version: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by WagCurious: I think YouTube could only have enjoyed writing that response more if it had been sent directly to Sumner Redstone... more » | Other threads
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politics
Fox News makes McCain a fair-use believer
"Overreaching copyright claims have resulted in the removal of noninfringing campaign videos from YouTube." That's the gist of a complaint from the McCain-Palin campaign's general counsel to YouTube management. The letter says YouTube's 10-day review policy hurts America, because "10 days can be a lifetime in a political campaign." It's never been proven that anyone at McCain/Palin headquarters used the DMCA to take down Sarah's swimsuit video. But no doubt being DMCA'd by Fox News for using a news clip in a campaign video has given John McCain a more personal view of how copyright laws can backfire.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Passerby: Thomson should file a logo infringement suit against the McCain campaign....unimaginative ripoffs more » | Other threads
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online music
Apple and other online music retailers get their way
The Copyright Royalty Board, an obscure agency which has been thrust into the spotlight thanks to its role in arbitrating rates for digital music distribution, has frozen the price online music stores have to pay to artists and labels at a little over nine cents. The music industry had been lobbying for an increase to around fifteen cents, would likely have erased the notoriously slim margins Apple enjoys at the iTunes Music Store. Not that Apple would have cared, since it's all about the iPod business anyway and the company was ostensibly willing to shut down digital download sales if it didn't get its way.
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By Jackson WestComment by WagCurious: Apple was as likely to shut down the iTunes store as you are likely to post the article on the... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Wilson Sonsini diversifies into Marissa Mayer's favorite pastry
When a history of the decline and fall of Wilson Sonsini, Silicon Valley's preeminent law firm, is written, this will surely deserve a paragraph: The lawyers there are now defending cupcakes. Sprinkles Cupcakes, the Los Angeles bakery made notable by HBO's Entourage, is seeking to defend its trademarked dot patterns against imitators; the concentric circles denote flavors. (Shown here: a red velvet cupcake.) It is, I suppose, a question of intellectual property. And a client is a client. But taking on this case just illustrates how far Wilson Sonsini has fallen since the '90s, when IPO fees fattened its partners' wallets, and before it got wrapped up in stock-options scandals. The silver icing: This may lead to work representing Google executive Marissa Mayer, should an interloper ever trespass on the ideas contained in her spreadsheet of cupcake recipes.
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By Owen ThomasComment by lustylady: You guys are so stealing our beat of late. It's okay, though. Perhaps a closer VW connection - Sprinkles just opened... more » | Other threads
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Blamestorming
Adobe: Amazon.com goof allowed free movie downloads
Amazon.com's Video On Demand service, which allows you to preview and purchase streaming videos online, uses Adobe's Flash Media Server to deliver the video. Late last week, Reuters reported that hackers had discovered an exploit that would allow users to turn the free preview into the full stream, allowing folks to watch movies for free using software like Replay Media Catcher from Applian. Adobe took issue with Reuters' contention that Flash isn't secure — instead suggesting it was Amazon's fault for not enabling various security options such as streaming encryption and player verification. Why did Adobe choose to blame a customer instead of quietly fixing the problem behind the scenes? Probably seemed easier. -
lawsuits
Facebook still facing existential legal threat
New Facebook lawyer Ted Ullyot will have his hands full. Before Mark Zuckerberg came along, every college had a facebook — a collection of pictures of the incoming freshman class, distributed in print. But now, there's only one Facebook. Aaron Greenspan, a Harvard student who came up with an online facebook called HouseSystem prior to the creation of Facebook, has long disputed Zuckerberg's claim to the idea — and he's been disputing the company's name, too. Records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office now show that Greenspan's suit to cancel Facebook's trademark has resumed, having survived two motions to dismiss. The most probable outcome here: Like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who claim they hired Zuckerberg to work on their college social network, ConnectU, Greenspan will get paid off with a piece of Facebook, too.
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By Owen ThomasComment by kimbjo: This is where you are wrong. thieving takes a lot of originality. more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Sarah Palin swimsuit video inevitably returns to YouTube
Everyone knows that Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, was once Sarah Heath, beauty pageant contestant, right? Someone in Alaska claims that a clip posted to YouTube is a legitimate video of the vice presidential candidate's appearance in the 1984 Miss Alaska show. (She was runner-up.) Versions of the same clip have been posted on YouTube, only to get yanked down in a game of whack-a-mole. How long did you think it took the McCain campaign to find a pageant organizer who can file a copyright claim to get the video taken offline? Paul Boutin says they should keep it on the site: "This video is of vital importance to national security — why else would all our media-hipster friends in New York be reloading it over and over again?"
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By Owen ThomasComment by FlakJack: "Sarah's hobbies include switching colleges, firearms, dating the captain of the snowmobile team, and prayer. Her turnoffs include reading, international... 1 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
G.ho.st says Microsoft stole "No Walls" slogan
This much is provable: G.ho.st, a hosted service that dubs itself the Global Hosted Operating SysTem, uses a slogan, "No Walls." Microsoft's new Seinfeld-powered Windows campaign pushes several slogans, including "Imagine No Walls." Sleep-deprived superreporter Kara Swisher tells us the G.ho.st gang claims trademark infringement on a pending trademark for "No walls." Our attempts to pull G.ho.st's trademark entry from the United States Patent and Trademark Office's searchable database returned no matches to G.ho.st's claim. Ball in your court, G.ho.st.ers — post your USPTO documentation in the comments, or it didn't happen.
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By Paul BoutinComment by OlinLoralee: There is an application for Ghost Inc.'s "No Walls" word mark in the US Trademark database. It was filed... 1 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
Spore maker attempts compromise with copyright crusaders
Will Wright's new videogame, Spore, allows buyers to install it on three computers at most, unless they buy another license. Copyright activists and just plain huffy consumers clogged Amazon.com with 2,000 one-star reviews for the game, based solely on the three-machines limit. Spore's maker, Redwood City-based Electronic Arts, has upped the limit from three to five. An EA spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that fewer than one percent of buyers attempt to install on a fourth machine (EA can collect these stats from its activation servers, just as it can change the number of allowed machines on the fly.) "Less than one percent" is a standard PR dodge. Still, in theory, boosting the limit to five should appease all but a few customers. In reality, the not-so-smart mob won't be happy until the game is free and EA tries to make its money selling T-shirts.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Spy from the Land of Rainpeople: Dudes, what's wrong with your comprehension of history? The plebs demands their circuses to be free and they will get... 1 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
Scrabulous brand sentenced to death in India
Mattel, owner of the Scrabble brand outside of the United States, brought suit against brothers Jayant and Rajat Aggarwal, creators of Scrabulous, for copyright and trademark infringment. Delhi High Court judge S Ravindra Bhat has ruled that while Mattel couldn't claim copyright on the board design, it could defend its trademark. The Aggarwal brothers must not use the name "Scrabulous" in any form, including in links or source code. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Mycroft8: Why didn't Mattel just buy Scrabulous from the Aggarwal brothers ? Or was the asking price too high ? 1 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
Ars Technica beats Spore DRM with a phone call
Copyright crusaders are climbing over one another to denounce Will Wright's Spore from video game publisher Electronic Arts. Even the normally stable ZDNet warns Spore's three-install limit could kill PC gaming. Kill it! Meanwhile, the scientific-methody gang at Ars Technica decided to test the system. They hit plenty of annoyances — at one point Spore's DRM servers were down — but a call to customer service got them more than they expected: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Valleygrrl: It's pretty typical for game companies to have a few more authorizations than they advertise. For example, if EA says... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Massive YouTube takedown typical Scientology censorship tactic
The Church of Scientology has been in a losing battle with the Internet for nearly two decades, ever since the first critics started revealing the sordid details of the organization on Usenet newsgroups. Of late, zealots have been using the Digital Millenium Copyright act to squelch dissent on YouTube — with four thousand bogus takedown requests sent in a few hours. Because of YouTube's automated system to respond to such complaints, all those videos and channels like Mark Bunker's XenuTV were pulled from the site. Counter-claims have since been filed and many of the videos and accounts restored. Videos included the one above with ex-Scientologist Tory Christman explains how the church uses members to help censor dissent online. What could YouTube possibly do to stop this abuse? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Migrant Blogger: No comments? Could the Church of Scientology be at work here, too? 2 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
Metallica stops punishing fans on YouTube
Metallica and its label, Atlantic Records, have changed their tune — instead of heavy legal metal, it's more light copyright jazz. The band, which for many years playd for their RIAA puppet masters by speaking out against illegal file sharing, has now embraced the promotional power of fans infringing on music publishing rights held by the songwriters by performing classic Metallica tunes on YouTube. The clips chosen by the band and their marketing minions for the new MetallicaTV channel are not clearly fair use, since as cute as an eight year old faithfully reproducing the guitar solo from opus "One" is, note-for-note re-recordings are not typically considered satire or commentary. Ironically enough, the band is giving in where it probably should have taken a stand in the first place. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by cokeslurpee: People still care about this washed-up band? I mean, c'mon. Who cares. more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Judge orders music downloader to pay RIAA $40,500
Arizona's Jeffrey Howell did several dumb things on his way to being ordered to pay the RIAA a $40,500 fine for downloading songs such as "Waiting For A Girl Like You," "Money For Nothing," and "Sweet Child O' Mine" using peer-to-peer file-sharing service Kazaa. The first was downloading Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" when he could have turned on a classic rock station and waited 15 minutes to hear the overplayed song twice. An even bigger mistake was wiping his hard drive after a Judge ordered him not to. But Howell's worst mistake? More »
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Comment by johnnypotatoes: The Electronic Freedom Frontier? Is that a splinter group? 1 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
Veoh wins DMCA case against gay porn producer Titan Media
In a summary judgement issued today, Judge Howard Lloyd of the Northern California Federal District Court declared that online video site Veoh can not be held liable for copyright infringement in a case brought by the Io Group, an adult content producer better known as Titan Media. Users had uploaded clips of steamy man-on-man action to Veoh, including one clip which ran 40 minutes. Rather than issue takedown notices to Veoh, the Io Group sued immediately for infringement. The judge found that Veoh's policies and practices in terms of policing the site — both at the time and currently — were "reasonable." Such practices include fingerprinting video files in order to block identical copies from being uploaded in the future and disabling the accounts of repeat infringers, which the site has done 1,096 times since it's launch, according to the company. The precedent it sets could very well aid YouTube in it's defense of similar allegations brought in the suit by Viacom. After the jump, highlights from Lloyd's decision. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Meatwhistle: Maybe the tards @ Titan will now realize that in the tapestry of Porn they are really nothing more than... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Is Opentape a jab at the RIAA?
Following the shutdown of Muxtape, a site for posting online mixtapes, in a dispute with the music industry, someone has launched Opentape.fm, where you can download code to easily create your own Muxtape-like online mixtapes of MP3 files. And if the creators of Muxtape aren't directly responsible, they probably fed Opentape's developers everything they would need. The first clue is that the site is powered by the favored online publishing platform of millennial hipsters, Tumblr. Another clue is that the domain registration information points to 152 W. 57th Street in Manhattan, which just happens to be IAC CEO Barry Diller's address (Justin Ouellette, Muxtape's founder, worked at IAC site Vimeo). Then there are two small hints in the code: More »
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By Jackson WestComment by FaceMelter: This package communicates with the internet via cURL and sends information that identifies the host website. How funny would... 1 Responses | Other threads
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copyfight
Biden wants to spend $1 billion spying on file sharers
The best way to judge a society is to judge how well it takes care of those unable to take care of themselves — like music and film executives, for example. Motivated by profit and self-interest, they have been helpless to stop digital piracy from eroding their relevance and profit margins at home or abroad. Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden to the rescue! Reports PaidContent: More »
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Comment by bourgeoisie: @Rachel Marsden: This article doesn't have anything to do with gun control, but thank you for taking the opportunity to... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Prince can't keep babies from dancing on YouTube
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has ruled that fair use — a complex set of exemptions to copyright meant to allow for commentary, criticism, and parody — must be taken into consideration before rightsholders request the removal of infringing content from websites like YouTube. The improper takedown suit was brought by Stephanie Lenz after Universal Music Group asked the popular video-sharing site to remove a clip of Lenz's then 13-month old son dancing to party-jam classic "Let's Go Crazy" by his purple majesty, the pied piper of Minneapolis, Prince. Lenz and her lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation can now proceed with their case seeking damages against Universal for issuing an improper takedown request.
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By Jackson WestComment by WagCurious: I was going to prove how happy I am with these guys by raising my Adwords bid on "film and... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Creative Commons attack posse targets England's Prime Minister
There are only two acceptable copyright stories on the Internet: "Evil Big Guy Sues Saintly Little Guy," and "Evil Big Guy Violates Sacred Creative Commons License." This is one of the latter. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official website, Number10.gov.uk, uses a WordPress theme called "NetWorker" created by sometime Web designer Anthony Baggett in Mississippi. Baggett licensed the work under a CC license that requires attribution — all he wants is public credit — but it seems the PM's site builders stripped that part out. All of which would be stupefyingly boring, except for this one line from Baggett: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by notyoutool: Sorry Paul, but even with that one line, this story is still "stupefyingly boring". more » | Other threads
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digital music
Pandora throws temper tantrum over music rates
The days of marveling over online music service Pandora's ability to know that you hella heart Oakland's own Digital Underground may soon be over. A court decision adored by the recording industry doubled the royalties Web broadcasters have to pay. Radio stations pay nothing to for rebroadcast rights to recordings, but do pay publishers a royalty. Satellite broadcasters pay nearly half what online music providers are charged. Pandora reports that the charges, payable to royalty collector SoundExchange, will amount to $17.5 million of their $25 million in annual revenue. Which would permanently mangle the company's business model, according to CEO Tim Westergren. The flip, convenient thing to do here is to blog about the evils of the rapacious music industry. Sure, SoundExchange is notorious for its long list of artists it can't find in order to pay, while it naturally collects royalties regardless. But after Muxtape's run in with the RIAA today, one has to think there's blame to spread around. What did these music entrepreneurs expect? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by mdoublej: Terrestrial radio stations now have to report to, and pay money to SoundExchange as well for music played over the... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
RIAA "problem" shutters online-music startup Muxtape
Muxtape, a New York-based online-music startup much favored by the Tumblr set, has shut down its website, citing a "problem" with the RIAA, a music-industry organization which polices copyright. Could it have anything to do with the ease with which users can download music files from the site, despite founder Justin Ouellette's efforts to block them? The company blog elaborates, barely: "No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned."
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By Owen ThomasComment by cooterpunch2: Where am I going to get my electro-wave dance party on now??? [farm4.static.flickr.com] more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Dell can't have cloud computing
Michael Dell will not get paid every time you say "cloud computing." The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has finally shut down Dell's attempt to trademark the phrase "cloud computing" late last week. Earlier in the week, the USPTO reversed a decision letting Dell proceed with its trademark request. [The Register]
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Comment by Matthew_Maurice: While the Violet-haters may disagree, it's good to see that the USPTO has wised up on companies registering terms like... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Pirate Bay block in Italy boosts traffic
Italian ISPs blocked traffic to bootleg supersite The Pirate Bay last week, in response to a government request. You can guess how this played out: A Pirate Bay spokesman claims the site has jumped 10 places on Alexa's Italian rankings, whatever those mean, thanks to the free nationwide PR. Italian traffic to the site — a search engine for pirated video, music and porn on peer-to-peer networks — is up five percent despite the block on most ISPs. [TorrentFreak] -
copyfight
YouTube pulls video of protest at request of IOC
The International Olympic Committee has issued a takedown notice to YouTube over a video that features protestors projecting free Tibet propaganda on the walls of the Chinese consulate in New York City. It's a clear abuse of copyright law. According to the takedown notice from YouTube, the IOC found the video through the "Claim Your Content" system that makes it easy to issue infringement claims. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Vicodiva: What do you expect from the IOC. With the good ship Oly helmed by such previous skippers as Avery Brundage? What... more » | Other threads
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online video
Legal, illegal Olympics clips rule Web
Traffic to NBCOlympics.com has likely already surpassed the 229 million pageviews garnered by the entire 2004 Athens Games, according to the network. Even so, users frustrated with the lack of full-screen video have already started to figure out workarounds. So where are people turning for better-quality Olympics video? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by giddieup: seriously, is the 4h30m long opening ceremony that interesting to warrant all this attention? it looked like a snoozer to... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Dell still wants to get paid every time you say "cloud computing"
Dell's recent attempt to register the term "cloud computing" as a trademark has taken on one small hitch. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently reversed its decision to grant a "Notice of Allowance" — a written notification that a specific mark has survived the opposition period following publication — and is reviewing Dell's request once more. Maybe Dell will have better luck selling its MP3 players. [Sam Johnston] -
copyfight
How to crack YouTube's Olympics channel
Commenter Stephen Sclafani figured out that replacing one cookie which YouTube's servers stuff into your browser will get you through to the site's U.S.-blocked beijing2008 channel. I'm watching Argentina vs. Cote D'Ivoire right now. Here are Stephen's instructions, slightly edited (I used to write documentation): More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by BCK: It seems youtube has figured out how to prevent this hack from working. It was working for me earlier this... more » | Other threads
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online video
The definitive guide to watching the Olympics online
The folks who are bringing you the Olympics online don't actually want you to watch their coverage. NBC and Microsoft are delaying the most popular events by three hours so that it won't interfere with more profitable TV broadcasts. And you'll have to download Microsoft's Silverlight browser plug-in to watch in your browser. But a bird's nest of geography and time-delay restrictions worthy of China's Communist Party government is in place. Thankfully, the anarchy of the Web offers plenty of options for having a crowd of curious coworkers surround your computer as you watch live handball, with varying degrees of expense and difficulty. Rather than being the coming-out party for Silverlight Microsoft hopes for, it may instead be the year sports fans learn a few new online-video tricks. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by cainmark: @stevieQ @tdhurst What's with the OS hating? I've paid plenty for hardware and software, even paid for a program to work on linux... more » | Other threads
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layoffs
Inside the BitTorrent collapse
BitTorrent has denied our report that the company laid off 12 out of 55 employees. That may be true: While our source told us 12 employees were on the layoff list, we've learned that, at the last minute, the jobs of two sales engineers, an HR manager, and an office manager were spared. Another tipster — "you can guess as to whether I'm an insider or not" — says that the BitTorrent layoffs aren't the fault of new CEO Doug Walker, who came to the those-crazy-kids file-sharing startup to add some enterprise-software gravitas. Instead, the elimination of BitTorrent's sales and marketing departments amounts to a coup by cofounders Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin, pictured here to Walker's right and left, who are giving up on the notion of marketing BitTorrent's file-sharing technology to businesses and hardware makers, and instead pinning their hopes on becoming an "Internet peace corps." More » -
copyfight
French movie pirates soon to outnumber theatergoers
Did you think only bratty American teens use BitTorrent? Variety reports that "close to 450,000 illegal downloads of recent films are being made every day in France, putting illegal pirate copies close to the level of legitimate box-office entries." The report helpfully points out that the comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis is France's top download.
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By Paul BoutinComment by raincoaster: Quoi? I thought it was Quebec? Canuckistani pirates REPRESENT! more » | Other threads
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Transformers blows up this weekend. Need to know more? io9 gets down and dirty with the superbots.
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